How to Start Working Out, and Never Stop

I can tell you one thing, it doesn’t start with undoing your entire meal plan and committing to 5 days a week of exercise.

See, most folks are trained to believe that those who identify as healthy, happy, and strong make a conscious, almost never ending effort to “grind” their way to success. As if every time they go to the gym, it’s the last thing they want to do, but because they’re so determined and gritty, they stick with it, no matter what. After all, no one enjoys working out deep down, right?

This message, thrown around subconsciously in silly motivational clips about risking “blood, sweat, and tears” and vague Instagram posts about “putting in the work”, serves as more of a guilt trip than an educational mantra. The most outspoken fitness enthusiasts will often tell you that it’s because you’re not committed enough that you aren’t seeing results. While they aren’t scientifically incorrect, what they’re lacking is empathy and context around why they themselves stick to their routine in the first place.

They love it. And contrary to what they would tell you, they don’t work at all when it comes to fitness. How is that possible?

Habits, my dear Watson.

This habit was drawn up by James Clear, found in his book Atomic habits.

Habits, as explained in The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg and Atomic Habits by James Clear, are essentially automated behaviors that we do constantly, run by the cycle shown above. Our habits make up anywhere from 40 to 95 percent of our day to day actions. That means some days as little as FIVE PERCENT of what you do is a conscious decision!

Let’s say I’m one someone who goes to the gym 6 days a week, and has for 10 years. Do you think at this point, I’m going to use much effort to get myself there? Don’t you think by now, it’s become almost automatic to go workout?

Actions that become habits start out as active decisions, that our brain gradually learns to automate as the cycle repeats. Meaning, we use less and less willpower or conscious effort to complete these actions as time goes on. This is how you’re able to tie your shoes, comb your hair, brush your teeth, or hum your favorite tune without much thought to it, and without feeling like those decisions drain you.

This is also how those who exercise and will continue to exercise for the rest of their life, have found such consistency. What those who share fitness tips and tricks generally forget, is that they themselves didn’t start out by “grinding, even when they didn’t want to”. They started out by doing work that was easy to replicate, consistent in its demands, and that they felt rewarded for doing so! It wasn’t this glorious battle they had every day that led them to be a champion of their exercise routine. It started off as easy, repeatable, and enjoyable efforts that got them hooked.

This is how you start working out, and make sure you never stop again.

Create a habit out of a form of exercise that you enjoy. If you don’t know what you enjoy, create a habit of trying different exercise ideas at a certain time of day, so that you can depend on that habit of aimless “workout time”, and once you find that mode of movement you love most, you’ve already taken the “grind” out of getting started.

The focus here is on taking the back-breaking labor out of getting started by easing into it. If you’ve ever gone a long period without exercising, and then did a brief 10-minute stretch routine, you already know how rewarding that feeling can be. Now imagine doing that stretch routine, once a day, for a month. You’d be reaping a constant reward from it as that sense of relief washes over you each day, and you wouldn’t even have to think about doing it after some weeks, it would be part of your routine. From there, you move to something that continues to feel as rewarding, like yoga or weight lifting. Doesn’t matter what you pick, you’ve now begun the process of sticking with it.

To more fully grasp this concept of habituating exercise, and to better understand how crucial automating is, I want you to think about something that you do every day that you know you shouldn’t. Netflix after work, donuts during lunch, whatever it may be. Think about how much energy it takes to complete that action. You can probably follow the multi step process of kicking your shoes on the floor, loading up the TV and stereo, choosing Netflix, deciding on a show, and committing 2 hours to watching New Girl, Avatar: The Last Airbender, or the most recent anime, if you’re cool like me.

This process happens without a hiccup because your brain has built in the ability to do every step in the background. Kind of scary when you consider this habit is something you don’t want to happen. But what if that same easy-go-lucky process put you into a gym? On a skateboard? In a yoga studio? Do you see how empowering this concept can be?

Start so small it seems inconsequential. Do 15 body weight squats a day at 6 AM, every day, and nothing more. Do it for a month in place of your morning snooze fest. Notice how rewarding it feels to finish those squats, and recognize that after two months, you’ve started waking up before the alarm, and you don’t have to convince yourself anymore to get up. It just happens. Congratulations, you’re habitually exercising.

From there, we can start talking about what comes next.